When a 42-year-old woman went into cardiac arrest in October in the northern part of Newport News, an emergency medical services supervisor along with medics were on scene in minutes.

With the help of the supervisor, who has specialized training, they spent about 40 minutes trying to save her life before transporting her to Mary Immaculate Hospital.

She’s since been released. According to EMS Capt. Kimberly Rabon, that’s just one example of how a relatively simple policy change in the past year – adding a third supervisor – helped save a life.

“I was running the north end of the city from here, and it was tough. … We've improved the quality of the care we're providing by having that additional supervisor in place,” Rabon said while at Station 10, near Christopher Newport University in the central part of the city.

The fire department’s changes are getting noticed. In November, it won the Governor’s EMS Award for Outstanding Agency, a statewide recognition for its commitment to serving citizens.

It also won the Peninsula EMS Council’s outstanding agency award in June, which made it eligible for the state award.

The department’s commitment to innovation makes its EMS division stand out, said EMS Chief Robert Lee.

“What’s nice is that we're becoming an outcomes-focused organization, where we're beginning to look forward a lot more, look at the technology that we can deploy to help us – what are the ways we can be creative and innovative?” Lee said.

Using a federal grant, the agency has replaced all of its cots and stretchers in trucks with ones that have motorized lifts. They’re a little heavier than the old ones, but now medics don’t have to lift a patient in and out of the back of an ambulance anymore.

The department installed vending machines in three fire stations over the summer, which look like they might have candy or sandwiches inside. They actually dispense specialized medical supplies.

Instead of picking up supplies from a hospital or waiting for orders to arrive, medics can use their ID to get needed items from the machine. This saves time, according to Rabon, and makes it easier to track spending.

Riverside Regional Medical Center donated three automated chest-compression devices earlier in the year. The machines can keep doing compressions while a patient is in the truck on the way to the hospital.

“All of this is going to allow these guys to maybe have a better long-term career without injury,” said Rabon, who has been with the department for 27 years.

The department rolled out an app called PulsePoint last year that alerts nearby trained citizens when a patient needs CPR immediately. Lee also said they’re experimenting right now with telemedicine and using ultrasounds in ambulances to help patients.

Changes since Lee started as EMS chief two years ago go beyond technology, though.

Lee cites the department’s community paramedicine program as probably the biggest change that helped them win the statewide award.

Medics long struggled with people who called 911, often multiple times, for unnecessary reasons such as getting low on medication or being unable to get to a doctor easily.

“One year we had one patient call us 69 times,” Lee said.

The department created a formal program to help connect them with services that might help without sending them to the emergency room.

The first year of the program, started in May 2017, saw more than 500 referrals. Lee said they’re now looking to bring on a second lieutenant.

In addition to the third EMS supervisor, the department has tried to use its structure to encourage trying new ideas. At monthly meetings, supervisors and department staff review performance and bounce ideas for changes off each other.

For example, a medic recently came up with a suggestion about the bulky equipment bags that medics carry into the field. What if they consolidated gear and used sling bags, so medics could carry them on their shoulders and not have to find a clean place to set them down?

Rabon helped him find the new bags that medics are field-testing now.

“Openly, we encourage it,” Lee said. “The captains go out there and talk to the people and encourage it. And the people in the field feel for the most part that they can make their recommendations.”